Time is money: The hours we spent stuck in traffic in 2009 cost the average American more than $800. Corbis

January 21, 2011

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In a depressing sign of economic recovery, gridlock is once again clogging the roadways of America, according to the Urban Mobility Report, an annual study of traffic released by the Texas Transportation Institute. During the economic slowdown that took hold in 2008, fewer people drove to work (or to shopping centers), leaving congestion "better than it had been in a decade," reports NPR. But as the economy began to recover in 2009, traffic began to jam anew and is now re-approaching boom-time highs. Here's a by-the-numbers look at the problem:

14Hours the average American wasted in traffic in 1982, the first year for which there are records

39.1 Hours the average American wasted in traffic in 2006 (an all-time high)

33.7Hours the average American wasted in traffic in 2008, down almost 14 percent from 200634Hours the average American wasted in traffic in 2009 as the recovery began

70 Hours an average commuter in Chicago or Washington, D.C. — the worst areas for congestion — lost to traffic jams in 2009

3.9 billion

Gallons of gas Americans wasted sitting in traffic in 2009

$808Cost to the average American commuter of the time we spent stuck in traffic in 2009 (in terms of "wasted fuel, lost work hours," among other metrics)

$351Cost, adjusted for inflation, to the average commuter of the time we spent stuck in traffic in 1982

4.62 billion Number of total hours Americans spent in traffic in 2009

5.25 billion Number of hours Americans spent in traffic in 2006, the all-time high

9.3 percent Unemployment rate in 2009

4.6 percent Unemployment rate in 2006

439Number of "urban areas" the report studied

60Percentage of people expected to live in urban areas by 2030. "That will require — no, it will demand — that we embrace multimodal, not car-centric, transportation systems," says Chuck Squatriglia at Wired